The Celtic striker has still to sign an extended big-money deal after lengthy discussions with the club.

Hooper has 18 months of his current contract to run and Celts supremo Lawwell does not want the saga to rumble on much longer.

He said: “Ideally, we’d like to see a conclusion to the talks with Gary. Neil wants him to stay, we want him to stay. He has been a revelation and Gary has the last 16 of the Champions League to keep him here.

“He has Celtic and everything that goes around Celtic.

“We’d hope to hold on to him in January. We’d hope to hold on to all our players in January and get into the last eight because the manager wants it and that’s what we will try and do.

“Is it risky letting a player enter the last year of contract? That’s the balance. We need to try and get value out of Gary. But hopefully he will re-sign.

“I’ve had one call for one player. But it wasn’t an offer, just a ‘what’s the story’ call. That suits me fine.”